The random musings of a casual World of Warcraft hunter who randomly raids, PvPs, and tracks pets. Apparently, you can't take the hunter out of the game or the hunter out of the player.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Where the Wild Things Are: Degu, Gumi, and Hutia

Meet the three spirit porcupines of patch 5.2: Degu, Gumi, and Hutia. If you didn't learn how to kite after Deth'tilac and Solix, these three will definitely put you through your paces.

Just remember:

FITE SPIRIT PORCUPINE FITE!

Transcription:

Hey everyone! This is Kalliope, here to introduce you to the three exotic spirit porcupines who are coming in patch 5.2.

All three are neutral level 90 elites and each is a different color: Gumi is blue, Hutia is green, and Degu is the first ever red spirit beast.

Once tamed, the three porcupines are standard spirit beasts with the usual three abilities: spirit beast blessing, a mastery raid buff that scales with the hunter's level; spirit mend, a targetable heal over time that scales with the hunter's ranged attack power; and spirit walk, a stealth ability that grants a 20% damage bonus to the beast's first hit from stealth at the cost of 50% movement speed.

The trio's arrival was foreshadowed back in the Pandaria beta when well-known Blizzard developer Ghostcrawler responded to a post on the forums which asked for porcupines to remain tameable. Along with officially making porcupines a permanent family, he mentioned a spirit porcupine. Hunters weren't sure whether he was joking or not...until now.

The porcupines are the first rare hunter pets in Pandaria to sit out in the open. However, one does not simply walk up to a spirit porcupine and tame it. They may be easier to find than the previous Pandarian rares, but they are still challenge tames.

The triplets have the same basic taming mechanic, but each brings a unique twist that makes their tame different from the other two. Like Deth'tilac in the Molten Front, the spirit porcupines are strong-willed and must be damaged while kited until their health reaches 20% - only then can they be tamed. This time around, however, there are no pet sacrifice shortcuts to getting the beast's health down and serpent sting won't help keep it slowed.

Hutia sits in a circle of blue torches in the Jade Forest, just north of Greenstone Village. Her special ability is Spirit Heal, an interruptable heal that she can cast while moving. Unlike her brothers, Hutia can be rooted and scattershotted, which makes it easier to interrupt her while kiting her. You'll want to stay in range of Hutia to stop her heals, so kite her in circles around her spawn point. However, be careful with glaive toss - there are several neutral porcupines in the area.

Degu patrols between Crane Wing Refuge and Thunder Cleft on the north side of the Krasarang Wilds. He's the only one of the trio to move prior to being engaged. His special ability is barbed quill, a hard-hitting ranged attack that he'll cast on a single target that's too far away from him. Between that and his massive melee hits, the hunter is forced to continuously kite him in his dead zone. Degu doesn't make it easy, though - he stops moving to cast his quill, so be prepared to correct your range often. The cast breaks if the target steps back into Degu's dead zone, just like steady shot used to for hunters who got dead zoned by an opponent. Kiting Degu straight back along his path should keep you in range of him without getting meleed, which is especially important, since Degu's melee hits are stronger than those of his siblings - that means he can one shot you with a lucky crit. There are a couple of stealthed tigers hiding along his path, so be careful before pulling him.

Gumi sits north of One Keg in the Neverest Mountains of Kun-Lai Summit, not too far from the east side of Stompy's path. Gumi doesn't have a visible bonus ability like his siblings, but he does passively move faster than either of them. Between his speed boost and the rocky terrain, aspect of the cheetah is a must in order to kite him without dying. The hardest section is the first part of the kite, which involves going uphill via one of two paths. Once you get past that, the ground mostly levels out and you can just follow the main path. Hunters will likely find themselves halfway across the mountains before Gumi enters the tameable range.

Right now on the PTR, each of the porcupines respawns after about five or six minutes. This could just be for testing purposes, due to the nature of the challenge tames, so be sure to check back for updates.

For the most current information on Degu, Gumi, Hutia, and other hunter pets, be sure to visit Petopia and the Petopia forums.

From all over Pandaria, this is Kalliope, showing you where the wild things are.

2 comments:

Hey Kalliope,Thanks for your accurate description ! For I have never possessed a spirit beast, I needed to get Hutia ; the tactic sounds pretty cool, let´s go :)Easy to find, gorgeous to see under her greenish glow, the spectral porcupine seems to be awaiting to me, despite she's taller than a dinosaure :) The place is clear, there is no hostile mobs around, let's pull ! Aspect of the Cheetah, frozen trap, serpent sting, concussive shot, and run... Bloody hell, the beast is really fast for my short legs (apologies for I'm a dwarf) - glaive toss, concussive shot - puff, puff - run - OMG she's getting too close - disengage - puff, puff - run, conc' shot, run - f***she's healing herself - run, silencing shot (missed, too late), run, frozen trap - puff, puff, think ("this is not gonna be such a piece of cake") - run, arcane shot - aaargh, she hits like a truck - concussive shot, run - puff, puff... Is this gonna last a long time ? Because I won't last a long time... Ok > feign death. And go take some kiting lessons.A twentieth tries later, I finally managed to bring down Hutia to 20% life and tame her. But for I was unable to do it around the log, I walked her on a longer path, first along the riverside, then uphill close to the 3 pandaren NPC's, then downstairs and back to the log, and that during almost three turns. As I run like an arthritic mold and bump into many obstacles, the Glyph of Pathfinding was very usefull.By now, Hutia and me are very happy together ; she's really ferocious and her mending capacities are amazing. Porcupines are really clean and very affectionate ; however, Hutia is not vegetarian (as regular porcupines are supposed to be) and refuses to eat the organic carrots I grow in my farm of the Valley.

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About Me

This pet blog is brought to you by a writer with a thing for following virtual pets through virtual areas and reporting their movements in a journalistic fashion. She walks the line between all walks of hunter life, not fitting in with any one group, but not minding.